First Impressions: Smoke-Free Campus

Monday, February 11, 2019

Experts say that it takes about 10 seconds to create a first impression of an environment. Positive first impressions affect the patient experience and increase patient satisfaction overall. In addition to our commitment to a zero harm environment regarding patient safety, we also need to remain committed to ensuring that “first impression” issues are being addressed. One of those is adhering to our campuses’ policy regarding smoking. All the KentuckyOne Health Louisville Region facilities are designated as smoke-free and tobacco-free. This includes: cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, electronic devices, cigars, pipes and other similar inhalant products.

When the No Smoking policy is not followed on our facility campuses, it presents a negative first impression of the type of health care organization we are and reflects negatively on our employees and the care we provide. In a state like Kentucky where smoking-related health care costs were $1.92* billion in 2018, it also reflects negatively on what we are doing to keep our employees and our patient population healthy. Another by-product of not following the No Smoking policy is that our campuses are littered with cigarette butts which in itself creates a negative first impression to our patients and visitors.

We ask that ALL our leaders and employees do their part to enforce the No Smoking policy including adherence to disciplinary violation for non-compliance. The policy can easily be found in Policy Stat on our intranet – ID#: 3834094.

*Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Broken Promises to Our Children: A State-by-State Look at the 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 19 Years Later FY 2018, 2017